This invention involves a method of producing reading materials in which the portion of a story associated with each of a plurality of characters is printed or displayed in a different indicia, color or representation so that each reader in a group can read the parts of specific characters throughout the book and easily follow along. This invention also involves a method of producing reading materials in which the portion of a story associated with each of a plurality of characters is also written at a predetermined but selectable readability level and presented in an identifiable format throughout the reading material. It also involves the reading material resulting therefrom.
While the development of television and video has enabled learning by audio-visual means, the basic method of learning and acquiring knowledge continues to be reading. Reading is a fundamental course in every school in every country and reading at home supports and complements reading at school.
There is a clear correlation to reading ability, literacy, and crime. About 60 percent of prison inmates are illiterate. There is also a clear correlation between literacy, education and poverty. Over 80 percent of prison inmates are school dropouts and about 60 percent of prison inmates were raised in poverty. The ability to read underlies core values and problems of our society. The desire to read underlies reading ability achievement. Yet despite the importance of reading, many people fail to develop sufficient reading ability to function in society. Reading is an acquired skill, that improves with practice. Although national averages indicate that most students know how to read, studies show that most don""t enjoy reading enough to do it very often. It is a common known fact that human behavior is directly correlated with pleasure and displeasure. Therefore, those that do not enjoy reading are less likely to read often. Conversely, those that do associate reading with pleasure tend to read often. Further, there are many people that when they read, have shorter attention spans and become bored or tired easily after only a short duration and thus they tend to quit a story of any significant length in midstream. By not reading an entire story, these readers miss out on the full enjoyment and stimulation that reading provides and as a result, may not associate pleasure with reading but instead associate boredom, frustration or failure. Most stories that are found to be the most stimulating and enjoyable are usually stories of a significant or substantial length. These lower attention span readers reading alone, or even taking turns with another reader page by page or section by section, have to read either a substantial portion or all of the story themselves while providing their own visualization of the plot and all the characters. Again, these readers become bored or tired and as a result, many turn to television for presenting them with an interesting story that takes less effort. It is not time that these readers lack as most television programs are of significant length. It is the amount of effort, desire and pleasure association with reading that they lack. Thus, there is a need for (1) improving reading skills, (2) improved ways to encourage people to want to read more and (3) improved ways to lessen the boredom that can be associated with reading materials that are of significant or substantial length.
One important way to improve reading skills is to read aloud. Reading aloud not only develops and enhances reading ability, it develops verbal language skills and public presentation skills. A 1985 Commission organized by the National Academy of Education and the National Institute of Education, and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education found that xe2x80x9cthe single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.xe2x80x9d The Commission provides evidence that supports the use of reading aloud in school and at home and recommends that reading aloud to children is a practice that should continue throughout the grades. Research has shown that listening comprehension comes before reading comprehension. Children can hear and comprehend reading material that is more complicated than what they can actually read. Listening to reading enhances comprehension and vocabulary. Research has shown that a child""s reading level does not catch up to his or her listening level until approximately the eighth grade. Thus, there is a need for improved ways to encourage people to read aloud together.
The current practice of reading aloud usually involves a parent reading aloud to a child or a child reading aloud to a parent while they share one copy of book or reading material. Unfortunately, most books are written at a single reading level. Therefore, when the child reads aloud to the parent, it is necessary to select a book that has been written at a readability level suitable for the child. When the parent reads aloud to the child, the book selected can be at a higher readability level and thus more interesting and challenging to listen to, however, the child can not usually read many portions of this book aloud. Thus, a parent and child cannot readily read a book aloud together. Further, should more than one parent or child wish to be involved in the reading experience, there is further difficulty leaving usually only one reader and the remaining as listeners. When books are read in groups, those readers with advanced reading skills become bored, while those with lower reading skills have difficulty reading text that is above their actual reading ability which can cause embarrassment. They can also loose track of where they are reading causing further embarrassment and frustration. This type of group reading can discourage lower level readers from improving and wanting to read in general. Thus, there is a need for an improved way to read in groups and to encourage participation by all readers that is comfortable, challenging and stimulating to all the readers in a group in order to improve reading skills and provide an enjoyable reading experience.
Panec, U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,693, proposes an apparatus for shared reading that attempts to solve this problem for a skilled reader and a novice reader by providing a book with a story developed through two alternating and interwoven texts, one written at a higher skill level for a skilled reader, the other written at a lower skill level for a child or novice reader to read. However, the Panec method with two different level readers, as well as typical shared reading methods among two readers with comparable reading levels, involves the readers simply alternating by page or section in reading aloud while sharing the same book. Although the Panec method attempts to solve the problem of disparity in reading levels for one novice reader and one skilled or adult reader, it does not encourage or provide an organized method or means to get more than two readers within a typical family or group involved in reading together. It also only provides a xe2x80x9cpredeterminedxe2x80x9d readability level and not a xe2x80x9cselectablexe2x80x9d reading level.
When there is more than one child in a given household, the parent or parents must find time to read, usually a different book, to or with each additional child as there exists a lack of books that can hold the attentions or interest of, or be read without difficulty by children of varying ages. Reading a book prepared with the Panec method with topic, content and readability levels suitable for a novice reader and a skilled reader would have to be read with the first child and a second book with topic, content and readability levels suitable for the second child and a skilled reader would have to be read and so on. Thus, a problem still exists for parents and teachers in providing the benefits of reading aloud in a group. There is clearly a need to present reading material that accommodates a span of novice to intermediate to skilled level readers within the same story or reading material along with a method for organizing the reading material for encouraging and enhancing the enjoyment of reading aloud in a group.
One way to encourage people to read more is to make it more pleasurable and fun, and one way to reduce the boredom associated with reading text of substantial length is to split up the story among a group of readers. This is typically done by altering the reading of text by section, page or chapter.
It is thus an objective of this invention to improve reading skills by facilitating the practice of reading aloud, and the benefits derived therefrom, by providing an organized group reading format that encourages people to read more by enhancing the pleasure and enjoyment of reading by providing a group xe2x80x9crole-playxe2x80x9d reading format, and that increases the likelihood of a reader staying involved in an entire story by using the aforementioned group xe2x80x9crole-playxe2x80x9d reading format. It is a further object of this invention to facilitate and enhance the aforementioned method of xe2x80x9crole-playxe2x80x9d group reading by providing a multiple of reading materials that are organized, structured, customized, formatted and displayed in a manner that makes it easier for each reader to identify and follow the parts they are to read. It is a further object of this invention to provide improved reading materials that make it easier and also more enjoyable for all readers to develop and improve reading skills by providing text suited to the reading ability level of a plurality of readers for the portions of text associated with the character or characters each reader selects or is assigned to read within a role-play reading format that does not disrupt the overall presentation of text of story.
A method is provided for producing reading material that makes reading more enjoyable and that helps to improve reading skills for a plurality of readers. A method is also provided for writing, constructing, re-constructing, formatting and printing or displaying reading materials in a manner that facilitates the reading of a book by several readers aloud in a family or group setting. The method also provides an enhanced reading experience for families, classrooms and groups within a classroom by providing readers with and opportunity for xe2x80x9crole-playxe2x80x9d reading which is facilitated by each reader selecting one or more characters in a story and reading those parts while assuming the xe2x80x9cpersonaxe2x80x9d of that character, similar to acting in a play. This method also serves to split up the amount of material to be read by each reader thereby reducing the potential of readers become bored with reading because of reading a substantial portion of text.
The method provides a way to facilitate xe2x80x9crole-playingxe2x80x9d wherein the dialogue for each of the story""s characters is viewed or printed in a different representation or indicia throughout the dialogue so that each reader in a group can read the parts of specific characters throughout the book and easily identify and follow along while reading their own printed copy of the book or while reading a shared version of the book displayed on a screen that is visible to all the readers in the group.
Moreover, one of the nation""s favorite past times is watching or hearing stories unfold as evidenced by the popularity of television programs and movies. Role-play reading together as a family in a safe and supportive environment helps to build or strengthen social/emotional bonds between members of the family or a group along with helping to build confidence and self-esteem in children. Role-play reading can also be a lot of fun thus increasing the enjoyment and pleasure of reading and thus encouraging people to read more often.
When children of any age have opportunities for presentation in front of group, in this case, their own family in a non-intimidating atmosphere, they gain experience and confidence to present themselves in front of other more potentially intimidating atmospheres such as peer groups and classrooms.
Each active participant in a group of family readers is presenting a xe2x80x9creading role modelxe2x80x9d for the children. Children are more apt to read if they come from a family of readers. With role-play reading, children learn variety of expressions and inflection with respect to reading text. Further, children are more apt to become lifetime readers if they learn to love reading as a result of it being enjoyable. This method of xe2x80x9crole-playxe2x80x9d reading also helps and encourages a lower attention span reader to stay involved throughout the entire story without the need to read the entire story themselves. The extra stimulation that is provided from all readers assuming a persona of a character in a book and reading the parts aloud while demonstrating expression of the persona helps to make a story more interesting to the lower attention span reader, thus reducing potential boredom.
A method is also provided for writing, constructing, re-constructing, re-formatting and printing or displaying reading materials wherein the dialogue for each of the story""s characters is also written at a readability level that matches that of the reader who has selected or been assigned to read that particular character""s dialogue so that each member of a group can read a selected character""s dialogue with confidence and without difficulty throughout the entire book. A method is also provided for recommending a reader to select a particular character that is best suited for the reading ability of the reader. A method is also provided for producing xe2x80x9ccustomizedxe2x80x9d reading materials wherein any particular group of readers can each select a desired character or characters to xe2x80x9crole-playxe2x80x9d read and associate a desired indicia and reading ability level so that the text to be written and presented for that selected character or characters is presented in the desired indicia that is correlated to each reader.
The resulting textual material has the text for the dialogue for each of a plurality of characters in the story presented in a different indicia throughout substantially all the presentation. Preferably, the indicia is color so that the dialogue text for each character is presented in a different color. The text for each character is selected and presented at a level corresponding to the reading level of the reader selecting or assigned to read each character. The reading material can be presented on paper, or on media suitable for display on an electronic screen, or it can be transmitted directly to a computer for display on a computer monitor or other viewable screen such as a television. The text for each character is in a size or font style that is suitable for the reading level of the reader selecting or assigned to read the character. For example, for a very young or early reader, a font would be used that presents letters of the alphabet in the same manner and style that young children learn at school. For example, the letters xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cgxe2x80x9d presented in most type fonts are not consistent with the style of letter children are taught in school. Thus, the letters could appear in a Futura or Avante Guard font which produces these letters xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cgxe2x80x9d in a style the children are used to seeing in their texts at school. The resulting reading material is preferably, but not necessarily, further produced with a legend printed or displayed on each page which correlates the identity of each reader with the character or characters selected or assigned to be read. The legend also correlates the indicia assigned to each selected or assigned character with each reader.
There is also advantageously provided a method and apparatus for preparing such reading material, material having a plurality of characters with dialogue to be read aloud by a plurality of readers. The apparatus includes means for inputting several versions of text for each sentence of dialogue for one or more characters in a story to an information processor, each version of text having been re-written with words and sentence structure suitable for each of a plurality of reading ability levels. The apparatus also includes means for inputting information relating to the reading ability levels of a plurality of readers to the information processor. The apparatus also includes means for retrieving a specific version of the re-written text for each sentence of dialogue for one or more characters in a story that matches the reading ability level of one or more of the plurality of readers previously entered into the information processor, the retrieved version of text being prepared and formatted for presentation in the resulting reading material. There are further provided means for recommending a reader select a particular character wherein the written or re-written text is the best suited text for the reader""s reading ability. Moreover, the apparatus advantageously includes means for applying indicia to the text for at least one of the characters to distinguish the text from the text assigned to other characters. Preferably the indicia is color. Further, the reading material is advantageously provided on a plurality of pages, and further includes means for providing a legend on a plurality of the pages correlating the character, reader and the indicia.
The invention also includes a method for preparing reading material having a plurality of characters with dialogue to be read aloud by a plurality of readers. The method includes the steps of inputting information relating to reading ability levels of a plurality of readers to an information processor and selecting text for a plurality of characters appropriate for the reading ability level of the particular reader assigned to each character. The reading material is then presented for viewing and reading aloud by the assigned readers for all the dialogue to be read by the first and second readers, and so on for any and all readers. Preferably the method includes the further step of providing indicia to the text for at least one of the characters to distinguish the text from the text assigned to other characters. Advantageously the indicia is achieved by applying a color to the text for at least one of the characters to distinguish the text from the text assigned to other characters. Further, the method preferably includes presenting the material on a plurality of pages, and further providing a legend on a plurality of the pages correlating the character, reader and indicia. The step of presenting the reading material can comprise the step of printing the material on paper or tangible media, or displaying the reading material on a visible display controlled by a computer processor.
There is thus advantageously provided a means of customizing reading material to a xe2x80x9crole-playxe2x80x9d reading format by distinctively identifying text to make it easier for each reader to find and follow the text associated with each reader""s selected or assigned character or characters and by structuring the material to suit the reading ability levels of each of a plurality of readers.
There is thus advantageously provided materials that make group reading easier and more enjoyable for a plurality of readers in order to encourage the development of reading skills. There is also provided indicia associated with a character and then text presented in that indicia that makes it easier for each reader to follow the parts they are to read aloud. There is further provided text suited to the reading ability level of a plurality of readers that makes it easier for lower level readers to read with confidence and without difficulty and that makes it more stimulating for higher level readers in the same group. The present invention helps to recapture opportunities that are typically lost for lower level readers to learn from peers who read at higher levels by avoiding the need to segregate children by reading ability when in group settings such as classrooms. This problem of having to segregate children can lead to other problems, including social segregation, misplaced impressions of inferiority or superiority, and a dislike of reading by poor readers. Thus, the present invention helps to eliminate the need to segregate readers by reading ability in order to improve reading skills. There is further provided improved reading materials that make it easier for readers in a group to develop reading skills. These, and other objects and advantages of this invention will become better understood when the following figures are considered along with the detailed description of the illustrative embodiments of this invention.